Danelectro Hodad

Near as I can figure, it is early 2000's. 21 frets. Body is masonite and plywood and hollow. White tape binds the edges. Three way switch, two volume and two tone knobs for two humbucker passive lipstick pickups that can be split and tapped by pulling up on the two tone knobs, which are labeled accordingly. Neck looks like satin maple on back with rosewood fretboard on top. Body is gold sparkle embedded in shiny black plastic coating over the masonite. Moderately wild shape roughly in super strat style with two horns. Chrome plated bigsby whammy bar bridge. String wrap around to bridge is a little tough to do in the dark, or when a string needs to be replaced in a hurry and requires a small pair of needle nose pliers. Non locking tuners that hold well. Medium neck with low to medium frets. It came with a non
Danelectro thinly padded gig bag. For its pleasing appearance, light weight, resonance, loaded with all types of features it is a winner=10.

After experimenting for a while, figured out the Hodad has many, many tonal possibilities. However, it is best suited for clean to very mild distortion. On the clean, it is a natural for surf music, some rock and some blues. These types of music go well with a somewhat jangly, bright, clean sound, a Hodad strength. On the distortion, it is a natural for some rock and some blues, which seems to stand out in the mix because of its rich, full, jangly, twangy sound. For surf, and rhythm guitar, I find the best setting is both pickups on, the treble volume and tone knobs rolled back a bit, leave the neck pickup all the way up and roll the tone back a little on that one as well. When playing the blues and classic rock for a solo, turn up the treble pickup all the way and when done turn it back down. The whammy bar is not intended for divebombs. As other reviewers have already said, it is effective if used gently. My hodad does not go out of tune when the whammy bar is used. Dislikes? A better padded gig bag or better yet a hard shell case. Likes? Refreshingly jangly, clean, bright with no mud, but this guitar is not a toy.

Set up well, but I am not original owner. Had new .10 strings when bought. Only flaw I saw is a small bubble in the tape edge near the neck. Stuck a pin in the bubble, which deflated and it is now adhered. Even pickup volume, although it is lower in output than my other guitars. To compensate,I just turn up the amp volume. Overall, this is a very well Korean built guitar that is the best over two other Danelectro's I once owned. I had a U2 when they first came out in 98. No longer own it as the bridge was not adjustable. Next, I had a U3. No longer own it as the silver sparkle color was too strong for my taste. Electronics and mechanical parts are all well made. Good nut. I can't find anything to get uptight about.

It's been to two gigs and getting ready for its third and fourth. I enjoy it because it offsets my other guitar(s) which are more traditional humbucker types and, accordingly, a different type of sound and tone. Two guitars to a gig is a standard rule. Replacing a string in this guitar during a show would be somewhat of a pushup if it was your only instrument. Solid strap buttons. Neat black body finish is subdued until a light hits it and then you can vaguely see the lightly distributed gold sparkles. Wow. However, this is not a solid body guitar and should be treated with that in mind.

Bought used-no warranty, no need to deal with the company.

I have been guitar playing since 1963. I have owned a lot of different guitars, amps and pedals. Most of it has been sold or traded. Now, I have the Hodad, a Robin Artisan, Gibson Les Paul Special reissue and Fender 52 reissue Telecaster with a humbucker in the neck. I have a Carvin 300SX amp, which is another great piece of equipment(further tone shaping, built in effects, loud and lightweight). I would buy it again. I really like the tones. No dislikes. Favorite feature is the jangly, twangy tones, which would suit country/western, surf, ome rock and some blues. Bought in a pawn shop. I kept my eyes open for another Danelectro as the prior two also had a the same type of tones, albeit they had aforemenetioned weaknesses. This guitar is good value for its cost. Modern construction methods with good quality control. The hollow body, coupled with the lipstick pickups make an unmistakable sound that you near on old records.

2 lipstick humbuckers, coil tap and phase switch. Standard danelectro body material. You can get a lot of sounds out of this guitar.

Danelectros seem to be hit or miss for people. they either love them or hate them. I love the sound of this guitar i play ska, punk and surf. This guitar is an amazing surf guitar and with the coil tap and phase switch you can get tons of sounds.

The action is a tad bit high for me and it looks like i cant lower it much more without taking it to a tech. Other than that it is great, i have the black with gold sparkle and white faux leather sides. It does look a little cheesy but i really like it, when the light shines on it it looks gold.

I would gig it with out a backup, it seems a tiny bit fragile but that could just be because it is lite. I don't think it can take as much abuse as a solid guitar but if you are careful i wouldn't worry.

haven't dealt with them

I like it, great sound great guitar for not much money. If you like danelectros pick one up, if you don't like danelectros leave it alone.

The finish I got was the Blue Sparkle. It may seem cheesey, but once you take it out of the gigbag, everyone looks! And it looks great on stage. The body style is kind of a strat, but actually long and warped almost like a fender jaguar, and with a double cutaway. This is a guitar from, I believe the early 90s. There are four lipstick pickups; two at the bridge and two at the neck, which are, I suppose, to mimick humbuckers.

I play sort of indie/rock/alternative and it suits our bands style in that it really sounds unique! It really has that Danelectro twang. It is the twangiest of my three Danelectros (I have a U2 and a DanoPro). It comes with two volue knobs, two tone knobs, and phase in.out and coil tap. When you use the coil tap, it swiches to single coil to get a really bright twang. If you use the phase in and out, you basically get a heavier sound. When you use both out of phase and single coil, something really strange happens: you get everything but mid. It's a strange sound, but fun to play around with.

I thought this was a solid guitar when I bought it, but now I believe it is hollow, just because it really rings when you knock on it.

The guitar I have also has a bigsby which I get a kick out of using. It will go out of tune if you use the bigsby a lot! As for restringing, you have to bend the strings under and pull through the bigsby, so it's beter to bend the string before you try to string it!

I use my Fender Blues Deluxe(tweed) amp wth it. Every once in a while, I'll use a tremolo pedal which sounds great with that surfy-twang.

When I got the guitar in the mail off of ebay, I found that the action was too high, and it buzzed a lot. I find that all my danelectros buzz eventually, even after having the neck adjusted. Anyway, when I got it set up, it felt pretty good. Not the lowest action, but comfortable for me. I've had it for half a year now, and no buzzes yet.

I always use this guitar live! If you want to hear it in action just search my band on youtube. Type: "binky bianca 007". It seems pretty durable, and it's actually pretty heavy duty.

This guitar is a great guitar to have simply because of its unique sound and look! Plus, it's pretty damn cheap. You can't get a better guitar for the price. This has served as my main guitar over the past 6 months, but I am ready to move to a higher scale guitar. Still, I don't think I will ever sell this Dano, although I can't say the same for my Dano Pro! I love it!

The finish was, frankly, the only thing that gave me a moment's hesitation about buying this guitar. Mine's in green, and the glitter seemed a bit too cheesy for my taste. Other than that, the warped-strat body style is loveable, and I can reach up far enough into the fretboard to do whatever I want there. The pickups are fine, too- But if you don't like the Danelectro twang, this is not the guitar for you. Still, the switch is in the wrong place. Unlike my Telecaster, this one can change after an especially vivid downstroke. Oh, and the strings are near impossible to change. It's dricing me crazy because of the stupid tailpeice. But the vibrato works great- this is one in-tune guitar.

My style is a kind of pre-grunge, post punk alternative, and this guitar suits me fine. It steperates me from the rest of the crowd, and I can have my own disticnt sound with it. I'm using it with a marshall tranistor amp because I'm low on funds, and it still sounds fine. Again, if you don't like the Danelectro twang, this is not the guitar for you. However, I love it. But there isn't a whole lot of varaiety, unless oyu have plently of pedals, which I do not. The Wah sounds awesome on it, however.

I got it secondhand, but the finish was fine, only there was a bit of rust on the inside I hadn't noticed! Still, it's fine. But the Action was great when I got it, too. It's just about perfect. There's no buzzing whatsoever. However, the last two frets on the high E string sound the same. I was trying to sort this out, and I'm in the process of changing these god-forsaken strings, so I'm not sure if it'll be better soon.

I've played live with it, and so has one of best friends. He's a punk rocker, and he favors this as well as his Epiphone Dot. The strings haven't broken yet, and they haven't gone out of tune too much. I'm only chaning them because they're old. Everything is solid about this guitar. I'm a very violent person, and this has survived my house for two years now.

Haven't had any dealings - No problems!

Beautiful guitar, stylish, retro, and wesome for whatever you want. Hardcore punks stay away, but softer folk- this is well woth the $400 you would pay for it! I wish it had a humbucker, though, right in the middle of those two single-coils. Ah, well, it's still perfection. Honsetly, if this wasn;t a danelectro and didn't have the twang, it would be my only guitar.

pretty good....

Sounds great, if I could keep the feedback to a minimum.... I can't get within 10 feet of my amp....

could be better but decent for the price of the axe.

I've never had a problem, it's just like it was the day I bought it...

nice retro style mine is a hard tail no bigsby likeit like that lip stick pick ups coil taps tons of tones possable

let me say i have many guitars ofmany different brands gibson lp custom gibson es 135 fender strat 1979 fender 90s thinline telecaster and the hodad this thing rocks many different tones killer leads when pused thru a good tube amp lipsticks are a lil weak but just turn it up and your good love this guitar

neck is so comfortablr its stupid fast action cool retro style and light can play it all nite

paid 199 dollors so i aint afraied to bring it to a gig built very well love the neck love it hear me love it

for the money this guitar cant be beat try one you will agree i would get another in a min.

Typical Hodad with Bigsby trem and black/gold sparkle finish. Not exactly shure what year it was made? Maybe someone knows if the serial number has anything to do with the year? Cool configuration. I wish that the pickup selector switch was located on the top horn like a les paul AND that the switch itself was a little more less hard slaping. The lipsticks amplify the click noise when changing the switch. Otherwise, I love the in/out phase and split coil taps!

I have a 1954 Gibson GA40 amp with a custom fit 1956 Jensen P15P alnico and a simple slapback analog delay pedal. This guitar just simply came alive with this setup. I don't know what everyone is complaining about? The pickup ouput is just fine. I noticed that the bridge is quiet if the coil tap is lifted. Tap it down and the bridge comes alive! Overall sound is full and rich.

Changing strings is not an easy task if yours has a bigsby. A string winder is a must have!
Overall hardware is top quality for an inexpensive guitar. Intonation can be in the ballpark and still sound good. Some guitarists are BiOtches and want everything to be just so so...give me a break! Brian Setzer once said, "Its close enough for rock n' roll".

I haven't played it in a gig yet, but I intend to! I have every confidence that this guitar would turn a few (guitarists) heads!

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I've been playing for 25 years. I own very expensive fine guitars and I really like this guitar. Its fun and full of life. Great guitar for the money!

This guitar is loaded with features they are listed in detail below.

It however would be nice if you didn't have to take the neck off to adjust the truss rod! The volume output of the lipsticks is quite pathetic.

The 4 lipstick pick-ups. This is such a subjective area, this is actually the only reason im posting is to clear this up:

They dont work like humbuckers, there is a substantial amount of hum. Definetly not high-gain pickups, they are quiet so expect to either use a booster pedal/driver or to just crank the amp. Sounds great for surf, old school blues, rockabilly etc. as soon as you need a harsher tone use a guitar with humbuckers. Simple.

So im giving this guitar a rating of 10 for sound, it's a cheap guitar that sounds perfect for the tones any of my other guitars cant do.

These finishes are not very durable. You need to be extra careful as they chip very easily.

I too often find myself on here reading reviews of guitars I own or have rented for gigs and see bad reviews or unhappy buyers. This guitar is great, it has the right look for the sound it omits. It doesn't do anything but those rockabilly, surf, jangly/trebly tones.

For the money if this is the tone you want this is the perfect guitar. It's look fits the bill and the bill isn't that much.

See the other reviews. Phase In/Out is my favorite feature on this guitar. Thin neck. A little too thin for my liking. I like baseball bat necks and this one can give me hand cramps if I play for over an hour.

I bought it new off Ebay in 2001. I was playing in punk band then and I fell for the Mosrite - Johhny Ramone shape. However, I never could get it to sound like Johnny. Put it away for a few years. Now I'm playing in a early surf-late 50's rock sounding band. Pulled the Hodad out recently and fell in love with it for the first time. I play it with the pickup selector in the middle position(all 4 pick-ups on), Out of phase, tone on bridge pick-up almost all the way down, and tone on neck pick-up all the way up. Both volumes on full. With this setting, you get a great spanky, percussive surf sound like a Fender Jaguar, for a third of the price. But it's a slightly more hollow sound and better resonance than a Jag. The Digsby trem is quite good for gentle tremolo. Not great for dive bombing or pulling up. Stays in tune quite nicely if you're kind to it. But changing strings is a pain.

Of course you need a good tube amp with reverb and tremelo. I play it thru a early 60's Gibson GA-17 Scout with a Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive in front. Perfect match. Bright, open, and the notes bloom quickly and have a resonant decay. The Hodad doesn't have a lot of sustain which is what you want for this sound. My sound is pretty close to the theme from "Ren and Stimpy".

To sum it up. Great for Surf and Retro Rock with reverb and a little overdrive. Good through a Fender type amp, not good through a Marshall type amp. Not good for heavy distortion.

I took it in to my guitar guy for a set-up as soon as I bought. Don't remember much about the original set-up. No problems otherwise.

Seems quite dependable. Never had any problems with it. Seems very sturdy for being so light. It may be cheaply built, but it's not fragile at all.

Nope.

Been playing 20 years. Own/Owned lots of gear. The Hodad is an awesome value for a Surf, Rockabilly, Link Wray guitar vibe. I'm less worried about it at rehearsals and gigs than I would be with a vintage archtop or Supro, although the price for the Hodads seem to be going up on Ebay. I don't really like the thin, fast neck but I can live with it. My buying motto is "If it costs over $500, let someone else enjoy it." The Hodad fits well with this motto and sounds like it costs 4 times as much.

Bought in 2005 brand new it's a 2002 0r 2003 model. I found it hanging on a wall in guitar shop in Hawaii among a whole crap load of Ukelele's. It was brand new and had been hanging on his wall a long time. I told him nobody in Hawaii would buy it since they only have two sounds on the islands ukelele and slack key which are ok for a while. Then their sound starts to be like the "it's a small world" ride in Disneyland. They should turn that into a shooting gallery cause you want to start shooting before the ride is over. I absolutely love this guitar beautiful black sparkle masonite top and back from a 1970's mobile home wall, and plywood frame trimed with expensive cream colored vinyl, four lipstick pups, Mosrite knock off body, bigsy style trem, single coil or humbuckers with coil tap and out of phase electronics very very cool and versatile. Golly Gee how many features do you want on a guitar? It's a 10+

For Davie Allen, Link Wray, Dick Dale and any other surfs up music this guitar is the best. It is a 10, screwing around with the coil tap and out of phase it can sound like Mark Knofflers strat. This guitar is perfect sound wise for msot anything except Jazz and who gives a @#*! about jazz? I really think it is a 9.5 but I'm going with a 10 to help off set the dork that said it was a 2.

The neck is real sweet. The "Bigsby" style tremelo is great after I went to the hardware store got a 1/2" stainless steel washer and put it between the shaft and spring clip It had about an 1/8" slop play from side to side. The studs on the "Bigsby style trem" that the string go on are great they are little bit longer than a real bisgsy. This is nice for when you put on new strings they stay on while you are winding. Other than that it appears to be put together quite nicely and you can take it apart very easily to fix anything.

I suppose so, what guitar wouldn't unless you a gorilla moron with you gear.

No idea. My guess is their policy is "you bought it it is yours and yours alone."

Playing for 40+ years mainly Rockabilly, surf, classic vintage rock (whatever that is). Other guitars 1976 Guild X500 with bigsby, 2003 Guild Starfire IV with bigsby,1973 D35 Martin, 1959 0017 Martin. Amps Musicman HD130 reverb head with two 12" vintage celestion cabs. Musicman HD130 reverb combo with 4 10" music man speakers. I'm giving this a 10 for what it does, this actually is the most versatile guitar for sound of my electrics.

Y'all knows this stuff.Mine's purple with a tremolo. just bought it on its own, for a price thatwas evidently a bitof a ripoff. also, my space bar is knackered. Basically, it's aload of qualitygear on a cheap body. Good body, just cheap. got it around '02 or '03, can't remember.

As previously said, it sounds fat. I tune mine to C (sniff if you like, I got a low voice for singing and have to match the guitar to it) and play very loud, heavy grungy stoner rockish thrash metal. people say it feeds back. It does. I just like that. love the sound, very varied, real deep menacing palm muting ( essential for metal). love to put the coil tap on and use new strings for a still low but ethereal sort of sound. The onboard effect can totallychange the sound quickly, which is great mid- song cos you can actuallymake a audible difference live. don't change guitars often, have only got two, but don't need to anyway. This bastard suitsmy style (very heavy-handed, non- skilled, in fact lack of style) verywell.

Didn't get it custom-fitted, as I was too ignorant at the time and anyway my other guitar plays like a bitch. raised the pickups a bit to thicken the sound somewhat, butother than that it plays great. really great. tuners are good, but the goddam tremolo ( mostly unused) means it slips out betimes, but not annoyingly. I've played a lotof guitars (abused and put into social care a lot of guitars) and this one's spoiled me. Did, like the good dude says, hit the pickup selector accidentally a lot at first. That's cool,I am a total buffoon, and I gotover it.

Very light, so you can act like a deranged monkey ( you all know youwant to) on stage and not wreck it. strap pegs ares a really good shape, work brilliantly. Mine, prolly cos god hates me, occasionnally decides it'll only give me some weak-ass half signal, which sounds utterly lame. hasn't done it for a yearor so though, so that's cool. still don't go backup-less. once burned and all that horseshit. never needed any other repair, except coil tap knob fell off.

didn't deal with them, never had to. My imaginary friend pete said they're a bunch of arseholes, though.

Been playing a while, I really have no idea how long, but many years. Never had a emotionally favourite guitar other than this. would buy another, sure but I wouldn't let no bugger hustle me a extra hundred for it though. Wish I could find a carrying case to fit it though. I can play this for hours. I can roll infrom the pub, pissed as a drunk bloke who's drunk, play it and sound good. And I do. a lot. Really don't like not playing it that much at all. Fatter Humbuckers'd be good, but it'd be an arse to fit them. Gotto get rid of that goddam tremolo. This guitar is bottom line, the best I have ever heard. Get one. or don't, fine, whatever. wanker.

I bought a pretty much brand new Hodad w/vibrato for 300.00 USD on ebay about 3 weeks ago.

It's blue sparkle (wouldn't be my first choice, but they're hard to find these days).

It's got 2 pairs of Danelectro lipstick pickups: one set it really close to the neck, the other set is further down, close the the vibrato rig.

It's got 4 knobs- tone, volume, and 2 "coil" knobs. As I'm sure you've heard, you can pull these knobs up to switch to single coil. The resulting sound is much more bright and treble-y. You can also dampen that sound by adjusting either knob. It's fun experimenting with them--you can get lots of different sounds.

Ihe body style is very unique, and very appealing to (my) eye. I respect the Les Pauls and Strats out there, I just get tired of seeing them all the time.

The neck is maple, the fretboard is rosewood. My particular guitar has a problem in that area though, the fret wires are too long for the neck, and they stick out. They cut my index finger up when I play. They need to be sanded/filed down.

This guitar is so versatile, I don't know how it couldn't fit any particular style. I bought the guitar to play rockabilly/surfy stuff, but it handles AC/DC, Thin Lizzy power chords so well I play that stuff too.

It's easy to get a deep bass-y sound or a bright sound. Just mess with the coil knobs.

The setup is fine, except for the fret issue. I've never seen fret wires that stuck out like these do. You can't really tell by looking at it, but when I play it, my index finger gets caught up on them. It's annoying as all heck.

Also, I'll probably need to get it professionally set up, as it tends to go out of tune slightly every 10 or 15 minutes. I should also say I tend to hit the strings fairly hard though (ala Angus Young).

I haven't had the guitar long enough to say how reliable it is, but I plan to play live with it soon. I've played it enough that I'm confident that it will hold up just fine.

N/A

I've been playing guitars for about 10 years or so. The sound I can get out of this guitar meets all of my needs for now. For the price, there's no way you can beat this guitar. It is definitely the best guitar for the money, hands down.

If this guitar were stolen or lost, I'd be so bummed. It's such a unique and good sounding guitar, and now they're hard to find. I might buy a Tele or SG to replace it, but as soon as I found another Hodad, I'd buy it on the spot.

I've plugged this guitar into a Marshall JCM 900 w/ 4x12 cab after playing a Les Paul on the same set up, and I like the way mine sounds better.

I'm fairly disappointed with the electronics on the Hodad. The output on the pickups is pretty weak, and although the twin lipstick setup is an attempt to recreate the "humbucker sound", it isn't actually wired properly to cancel out any hum! Plus, they didn't bother to shield any of the electronics in any useful way, so this guitar creates too much superfluous noise... The tones are decent, sure, but the above factors just about make this irrelevant.

I suppose I'll keep it around as a backup guitar for emergencies, but I couldn't see ever using it as my main axe.

You Know the features by now. Mine is the black finish with gold sparkels. I have the tremolo model.

Incredible! I play mostly rockabilly/jazz/Beatles. What a plethora of sounds! I really dig the twang with both pickups on/in phase/coil tapped. It does get a bit noisy with both pickups on and/in phase/non-tapped, but not offensively so. I wish it had a master volume knob on the lower horn.

I don't care much about factory setup. I always bring it to my guitar tech and let him set it up, and man did he ever. It is the only guitar I own that has to have the neck removed to adjust the truss bar. My tech did it once, and now it plays like a dream. It is so light weight compared to my Strat and Archtop. What a great 3rd set ax! I will replace the cheesy volume and tone pots someday. They are a little scratchy just before they are turned all the way down. The plastic knobs are a joke too.

I've been gigging with it for a few months now, and It holds up just fine. I never gig without a backup. In fact, I always bring my Hodad, Strat, and Archtop to every gig. Other than the crappy pots and knobs, no real problems.

I've always had good support from Dano. I hope they get a new guitar line in production soon.

I've been playing guitar and string bass for 30 years, and electric bass for 25 years. I have a 1975 Strat (I've owned since it was brand new), a Micheal Kelly Vibe HT arch top, an Ibanez RG-550, and a Fender Jazz bass (Mex). I have a 2002 Vox Pathfinder, a 1965 Vox AC-30, and a Peavey TNT-115. This guitar has no comparison. I do wish it had a master volume, and I do want to upgrade the knobs soon.

Everybody has covered these features by now. I don't know what the dude who said this was microphonic. What kind of outrageous gain amp was he driving? Mine is the tremolo model in the black with gold sparkle finish. I've had it about 2 weeks, and I played my first gig with it last night.

I play mostly Rockabilly and driving Rock and Roll. This is an awesome ax for this music. I have a Vox Pathfinder Reverb for rehearsal, and I bring out my 1965 Vox AC-30 for gigging. My effects chain presently all Danelectro. I have a Daddy-O overdrive, Fish and Chips EQ, PB& J Echo (set to a fat single slap), Corned Beef reverb, and Pepperoni Phaser, in that order. I rarely use the phaser and reverb, and I always have the EQ and slap on. When I want to crunch it up, the Daddy-O gets a stomp. I bought this guitar as a backup to my 1975 Strat, but after last night, I think it will share equal billing. In the humbucker in phase mode with both pickups on and the Daddy-O on, I get all the grind I want. It is a bit noisy in this position, but I've been spoiled by the Vintage Noiseless pickups in my Strat. I've noticed the noisiness while rehearsing, but during the gig it was lost with all the other humming going on with the various amps and sound system. If you pull out the coil tap switch, it gives a nice psuedo Tele twang, great for the clean Rockabilly stuff. In the coil tap position, it is a great deal quieter. I haven't even begun to experiment with all 12 tonal options live, but these two setting alone make the guitar worthwhile in my opinion. The only thing I must say I dislike is the tone pots. trying to roll the tone back from bright to deep the knob seems to do nothing for over 3/4 of it's rotation, then suddenly and with a scratching sound it rolls all the highs right off. Once the honeymoon is over, I intend on replacing these pots with some high quality models. Also, the Bigsby type tremolo has a bit more spring tension than I like, and I may search for a spring with a lower compression rate if this one doesn't begin breaking in soon.

I bought this guitar used from an eBay reseller. It still had the tags on it, and there was not even 1 belm on the finish. The action was OK, but I brought it to my guitar guru, and he set up the action exactly like my Strat. The only thing I can find wrong with the guitar is the about a quarter inch of the white side binding by the neck pocket has pulled up from the body. My guitar guru has said that he can reattach it with no problem, so I'm not concerned.

This ax did great last night at the first of what I hope are many live gigs. The hardware seems rugged enough, with the exception of those cheapo tone pots. The finish is awesome, and I don't forsee any problems with this in the future. The strap buttons seem solid. I always try to bring a backup so we can keep rolling along if I pop a string. Also this ax feels like it is about half the weight of my ash Strat, so I think in won the position of "third set guitar" from now on.

Dano is great! I used to have a dirty-thirty practice amp, and when the input jack broke, I brought it back to the music store I bought it from. They sent it back to Dano, and Dano sent me a brand new amp.

I've been playing guitar and standup bass for 30 years, and electric bass for about 25 years. I also own an Ibanez RG-550, a Yamaha acoustic, a Martin Backpacker, and a Mex Fender Jazz bass with Vintage Noiseless pickups. I have a Peavey TNT-115 bass amp as well. Only a moron could loose a piece of equipment like a guitar or amp. If it was stolen, I'd get another. While it has a few minor issues like the tremolo spring and the tone pots, as far as a value, this guitar can't be beat.

Korean Hodad with tremolo. Black/gold sparkle finish. Loaded with features; you know what they are.

Great sound. Smooth Jazz like or quacky/strident and everything in between.
Bigsby tremolo is harder to use than the standard modern type which I didn't know. It looks better though!
I have had no noise trouble on recording.

Got this one second hand so don't know how it was from the factory. Action is very good. Frets good.

This is a second hand unit. No idea how the previous owner abused it. It has a couple of small chips out of the paint on the body. I has some scrathes on the headstock. In short, it has had some punishment but it still plays well.

No opinion on cust support but I have to mention the pricing.
This guitar was originally priced at about $1500 AUD in Australia. It soon dropped to $600. (I bought this one second hand for $500 during the intervening period - if I had waiting 6 months I could have bought new for and extra $100). Anyway, just to show how outrageous the markups can be on geetars. Always shop around and use the web to find out the realistic price or you will be shorn.

I love the shape.
I don't like the balance, the body is light so the head dips some.
Compared with Yamaha 604 which is a fine guitar. The Hodad is just more flexible plus looks wild.

Bought in January 2002, so I assume it was made in 2001. Korean made. Other than that, the same features as all of the later model dads. This will be the highest rated category.

Sounds lake crap. Never buy one of the useless pieces of %9(*^&9243 unless you just don't have time for a root canal. The problem is that the pickups are microphonic and I found it out too late to have it fixed. You can't play this guitar live, unless it's an acoustic setting and the audience enjoys the full tilt squeal of the lipsticks. Pass out ear plugs prior to the gig.

Can't tell about the action because I was too busy turning the amp down and putting the ear plugs in deeper. Uh, it's blue.

It should last forever, since I'll never play it. If it was all wood we could use it for kindling.

Here's a great one. Ever call these people for help? I called the "contact us" line and got three more useless numbers in 5 minutes. There's a line for guitars/amps, a line for in-warranty, a line for out-of-warranty. The recorded girls voice is very nice...I give her an 8.

I've been playing long enough to know when I've been had. Next time I REALLY want to totally throw away my money and I don't have a speeding ticket to pay, I don't need a root canal without anasthetic or I don't feel like wrecking my car, I'll buy a piano. I don't play piano, but then again, I can't use this worthless sack of s**t, either. I put it out last night with the crawfish heads, but it was still there when the cats went home.

really pretty decent features... the tuners are really nice, and keep pretty well. but this isn't an expensive guitar. you can see a little bit of imperfection in the lamination and fretting. A ton of options with out of phase and coil tap on the tone knobs.

like i said before there's a bunch of tone options with this guitar. I like all the different sounds that i can get out of it. I would also like to say though, that if you've got a strat cranked and your amp's at say a 4, you're going to have to turn it up to around 6 for this guitar. The pickups aren't really hot. I'd reccommend replacing them with some hotter upgrades... also, being a hollow body, ya get a little noise if ya tap the body.

I really like the thin neck on this guitar, and i can move up and down the neck really quickly with it.

I haven't had any problems at all with this guitar, but i wouldn't want to have to find or fix the pots on this thing... i can't imagine how complicated this damn thing is

go ahead and try one out if you really need a variable guitar, but i'd keep a good backup on hand. they're pretty cheap now on ebay or in your local shop so give it a shot!

This Danelectro Hodad with Bigsby-style tremolo was made in Korea in 2001, I think. The features are listed in the other reviews, but to summarize, it has two pairs of lipstick pickups; Gotoh tuners; coil tap; and phase inverter. This one has the red pearl finish which is very nice, better than it looks in pictures on the Danelectro web site.

Like other Danelectro guitars, it has a retro look and is constructed of plywood/masonite. It's pretty solid feeling and not very heavy, which is great if you're going to play for a while (no Les Paul backaches the next day).

The tremolo bar is a big feature of this guitar; I wouldn't buy one of the Hodads without it. It's a lot of fun, and it goes out of tune far less than you'd expect. It makes changing the strings a bit of a hassle, but it's worth the effort to make those cool surf-guitar sounds. I also like Bigsby-style equipment better than the Stratocaster-type tremolos.

Many of the other reviews describe the Hodad as versatile, and it really is. It's especially good at getting a range of punchy, twangy Telecaster-style bright tones by using coil tap while also allowing a more mellow, full tone. It doesn't really have humbucker sounds, although the twin lipstick pickups are pretty good at cancelling the noise you usually get from single-coil pickups.

The Hodad is fun to play with a modeling amp; the different tones you get from both the guitar and the amp makes it interesting to see what sound combinations you can come up with. As you might expect, the Fender settings seem especially good with the bright sound qualities of this guitar.

This guitar's action is fine and hasn't required any adjustment other than tightening some screws on the body surface that were pretty loose from the factory. The bolt-on neck works great and has a great feel, especially for a guitar this inexpensive. Overall, I was surprised at the overall finish, action, and quality of this guitar; much better than other Danelectro models I've looked at.

The biggest problem I've seen is that the pickup switch is too close to the strings, just under the first string. This makes it easy to hit accidentally with routine playing, especially strumming. You get used to it after a while, but having the switch out of the way (like on a Les Paul) would be preferable.

This has held up well in pretty good use over the last year or so, and I expect it to have a long life. On the other hand, I'd be reluctant to trust it (or any other guitar under $200) in situations where you have to really depend on your instrument. The finish seems good and the strap buttons are solid (and metal, unlike the crummy plastic ones Danelectro puts on some of their guitars).

I think the main value of this guitar is to let people like us have fun with instruments we can afford. You could turn around and sell this pretty easily--it sounds and looks good--but it's more fun to have it around to play, let your friends mess around with, etc.

Luckily, I've never had to deal with the company.

This guitar pretty much sold itself. While other Danelectros are fun to look at and pick up at the music store, they still seem more like toys than serious instruments. The Hodad, though, has good tuners; an adjustable bridge; a good tremolo; interesting pickups; and a good finish and feel. While I definitely think it was worth $180, I can imagine people feeling okay about paying a bit more for it, too.

2000 or 2001 I believe, and made in Asia someplace, probably. It has 21 frets, a plywood frame, and hardwood everything else. Mostly hollow... very light. Has 2 volume, and 2 tone.. one with coil-tap, one with out-of-phase. Has 3 way selector switch. 4 lipstick single coils wired like 2 humbuckers. Rosewood on maple neck. The finish is indestructable. Mosrite style body.. non-trem bridge.. topload. Tuners are nice Gotoh tuners. 25 inch scale.

This thing can go from sounding acoustic to sounding metal-ish. I LOVE IT! Feedbacks a little at high volumes.. but still.. LOVELY! Tons of different sounds. I love selecting the bridge pickup, coil tapping it, and taking it out of phase... BEAUTIFUL sound.. almost acoustic.

The action on this is amazing.. no buzzes.. nothing negative, really. The finish is.. ahh, I dunno.. I've thrown it around.. dropped it, etc.. not a dent, not a scratch, even. Much better finish than any Fender guitar I've owned.

Like I've said.. it's indestrucible. The hardware seems solid, as does the body, neck, etc...

I'd use it at a gig without a backup.

N/A

BUY ONE! I LOVE MINE! It covers EVERYTHING. Even country, if that's your thing. I wish it had a little more output when tapped.. but.. it's okay. I currently own 5 other electrics.. a Fender Tele and 3 Strats and a Univox (vintage) Les Paul... this I like 2nd best to my main Strat.. which is completely modified for ME.

Made in 2000, or very early 2001. 21 frets, dual humbucker pickups, which is actually two singles wired together, volume and tone controls for each pickup, coil tap, and out of phase capability under the tone knobs, and a pickup selector switch. Has the Bigsby tremolo, which gives a very nice retro look. Red pearl finish. Overall, a very nice looking guitar.

For blues and classic rock, this guitar has what it takes. I like the retro styling, and that it's fairly light, not too heavy. For the time I had the guitar, I was using it with an older Fender Princeton Chorus. On the clean channel, it was fine, but when you kicked on the lead, whhoooooaaaaaaa!! Feedback like you wouldn't believe. It got to the point where even if I muted the strings, it still made noise. Too much to try and disguise. I tried to lower the gain, but once it got to an acceptable level, the sound wasn't what I'd want to play at. Some feedback is good, especially when you have a tremolo, but this was too much.

Bought the guitar brand new from a local music store, and even though it was setup fairly well, I had some basic work done on it to clean up the action, and neck. The finish was beautiful, couldn't find a flaw on it anywhere! The chrome hardware was gorgeous too. Just a shame that I couldn't play the thing through the lead channel on the amp.

I only had the guitar for about five months, before I sold it. However in that time I had used it with my band a few times. Never gigged with it, only for practice. It would take live playing well. I would say the hardware could endure some rough work. Even if the finishes wore off, it would keep kicking.

Dealt with them once, and they seemed helpful. Fast responses too.

I've been at it a few years, with a few guitars to my name. This would rank somewhere in the middle. I have Gibsons, Peaveys, and some others, which I normally use. I fell for this one as soon as I saw it. Beautiful guitar, and it sounded great in the store, but then again, that wasn't my amp. Should've checked it out with my amp first. The look and feel were great, and I hope that maybe I can get another one like it since I have gotten a different amp. Perhaps the old amp had some issues, and it was the problem. We'll see

2002 Korean made non-tremelo Hodad coffee top god.

The features of this guitar are endless! You can use either coil tap or phase tap, or both with this machine! It's just incredibly versitile! It is a double-cut away holobody, with four passive chrome plated Danelectro Lipstick pickups wired as two humbuckers. Ingenious idea. We got some Gotoh tuners on her, and the finish is a beautiful Deep Blue Purple, with cream trim! This gives it a very retro, two tone look that goes incredible with Ska and Surf!

Surf, Ska, Punk, Emo, this guitar can dish it out. Vasitly superior sound to my Epiphone ES-335 knock-off. I was anticipating for it to be a noisy little bitch, but its quite as hell! The quietest guitar I have ever played actually! I actually want to figure out how they wired the lipsticks so I can do something similar with my ES-335.

If your looking for a Bright sounding guitar, this is it, if your looking for guitar with a lot of mid range and low tones for heavier stuff, it can do that too, a surfy sound? no problem! This guitar can do it all!

Oh, and I run this though a Danelectro Cool Cat, Black Coffee, Tuna Melt, Surf & Turf, BLT, Boss Acoustic Sim, Blues Driver, and a Crybaby, all piped though a Vox AC30 amp. Surprised the hell out of me when I first heard a recording of the Hives, my sound was almost identicle!

The finish seems indestructable, however I'm kind of disapointed at how the trim is just taped on... The action is incredible, however the neck does get a little dry, making it harder to do a lot of faster slides after a long period of playing. But thats easily fixed. A lot of other complained about the sharpness of the frets, no problem here, she's bare-butt smooth!

One thing that really caught my attention was how well it keeps tune! I play a lot of out-door venues, and when I was using my Epiphone for most of them I had to tune after every song. With this one I don't got to tune as often. I actually took my pedal tuner out of the effects loop to cut down on noise!

Drop it from a second story balcony, its fine, throw it against a wall, it hardly sheads a tear. Now of course I didn't do this to it, but I have a really strong gut feeling it could with stand the punishment. I know its super light, but look at the materials! Plywood, and Plastic! I was told thier was some cork in their too. I can finally jump around on stage without worrying about the strap falling off! Very dependable! If it were stolen or lost, or destroyed, hell, I would be at the store in seconds asking for a new one, not caring about the price! While I wouldn't need a backup at gigs, our style's are so varied that I switch between my 335, my 56-U2, and the Hodad constantly. However I think the U2 will soon find a place on the wall as a symbol of the Danelectro pride I have!

Havn't contacted them, no need!

I know what your thinking because I was thinking the same thing when I saw this guitar "$150!?!?! It's gotta suck!" Yet now I wish I would have seen this guitar before I picked up my Epiphone (cost me $700) I even got the matching Tweed case for it too! It's brilliant, I don't know why more guitarists don't use them. They got the action of an Ibanez, the versitility of a swiss army knife, the sound that only the guitar of your dreams could make, and the durability of brick! Thier is NOTHING wrong with them!

This thing is more versatile than any guitar I have ever owned and played, Now when I'm out playing a show, I hardly ever take it off.

Sounds great, I have got it down, how to set it to make it sound the way I want it to. However, I can't seem to get it to come up with a very good grunge sound, my jagstang is still the shit for that.

plays great.

So far, so good, however, I am wondering how long the neck will hold up. It seems that it isn't very stable against the body. I don't know but maybe that's because the body is plywood??

Just wanted to say that this is the non-tremelo version.

I stole this at 150 bucks at the MF Blowout. This is the easiest playing, most versatile guitar anybody could ever want. It is a magical combination of cheese and sheer genius. The thing is made out of plywood and masonite, and sounds like a million bucks. Look at the old Silvertones and Danos that show up on Ebay. Seems like plywood and masonite lasts a long time and makes a very stable guitar that stays in tune and does not warp, shrink, or crack...hmmm.

Just about any sound you could want, unless you want a Les Paul. The hollow growl from the Out-of-Phase switch has to be heard to be appreciated. Plug this guitar straight-in to a high quality, hi-fi amp, all you need is a little reverb, and you will discover the guitar itself is an effects panel. This guitar even sounds just great clean, through a solid -state amp.

All I did was lower the action a bit. No real flaws or problems out of the box. Then again don't expect Fender Custom Shop quality from an inexpensive Korean guitar. But, incredibly, you can have the tone and playability.

Solid, dependable as any other guitar I have owned.

This guitar is worth having in your collection even at it's retail price. Since you can still pick one up here or there for a fraction of that, you can't go wrong.

Y'all know 'bout this. Nicely thought out tho.
Black gold-flake with Danotrem. The trem works great with the roller type bridge. Not for dive bombers tho. More useful for shimmers. Stays in tune extremely well.
The phase and single/humbucker push pull pots really do make this a extremely versatile axe.

From Ricky jangle, and Tele snap, to Strat quack. Plus an added bonus of smooth Les (with a little tweaking).
This axe is definitely fun to play.
Sounds best (to me) clean.
Piano like responses on the open lower registers. Way cool.
Palm mutes are way above average!!!
Others have stated that there is little sustain. I have not found this to be the case with mine.
When playing unplugged or plugged, this axe has alot to offer with picking dynamics from the end of the fretboard to the bridge.
Ya baby.

Over all, the guitar came with everything ok for the price range.
Formica? Yea right!...But it sounds wonderful!
Fret ends are in need of a good sanding, as they are a bit sharp.
The action for my tastes is a little high when set to its minimum.
So... a bit of a shim (in my opinion) is needed in the neck pocket to raise the neck to achieve 4/64" at the 12th fret on the low E string, and 3/32 at the high E string.

Who knows? So far so good.

Have not tried.
Let me know how you do tho.

Been playing for a long time. Over 30 yrs.
Still... I do not seem to get any better.
I never would have bought this axe on my own. It is not my style in looks.
But...I am glad that my wife liked it enough to have gotten it for me for my B-Day.
Just goes to show that if you open your ears enough...or have someone else help you to do so (thank you wife), you will appreciate the endevours of other luthiers. No matter what the eye appeal is.
After all..it is ALL about tone.

I bought this 2001 Dano for my wife to learn on. White and Violet Pearl finish. If it were any more (or less?) retro it would be ugly as sin. But with the *countertop* look I'm not sure that I would call it pretty.

I won't go into features too much, since the other submissions are on the money. Ours does have the tremelo. I like the fact that this guitar is so lightweight.

I have to admit that I didn't expect this much guitar for the money I paid. Gotoh tuners look better, compared to the cheap looking tuners on my Epi.

This is where the fun begins. This is the most versatile guitar that I have ever played. I can go from humbuckers (kinda?) to single coil sounds. Phase tap and coil tap are a blast to play around with. While I like more of a blues sound, this guitar is a hoot when just fooling around with pop, surf punk, etc.

Never had a guitar with lipstick PU's before, and coupled with a hollow body I have to admit that I was worried about uncontrollable feedback. But, I found that this guitar is no more noisy then my other guitars.

I play it through a Pignose G40V tube amp. There are sounds that I can't get from it (such as those that come from a pair of good humbuckers) but I knew that when I bought it. At the same time, I can get a wider variety of sounds out of this guitar then (I believe) any other.

Action was good out of the box. Action was a little high for my liking, but playable. Could find no finish flaws.
One problem that I have is that I think I could saw through someone's leg with the fretwire ends. Obviously, I'm exaggerating a bit, but I do want to get it prefessionally set up.
Again, the Gotoh tuners look rock solid. However, I find I have to tune it more often then I do with my Epi or Jackson (and I very rarely use the tremelo).

If I played live, I'd use this guitar without a backup. Strap buttons seem solid. I haven't bothered to put locking strap buttons on yet. I'm not sure about durability since I tend to baby my guitars. It doesn't feel real durable though (maybe due to it's lack of weight).

Haven't had to deal with them yet.

Been playing for about 15 years, on and off. Have 2 other guitars. An Epiphone Standard (recently switched stock PU's to Seymour's) and a Jackson Pro. This guitar fills in the gaps between the two humbucker guitars perfectly (for me anyway).

I've come to like it so much that if it were stolen I'd buy another one, even at double the price.

This is a cheap guitar without the cheap sound. It's sounds are unique. If you're looking for a good quality guitar at a good price to add to your collection, or if you're a beginner just starting out, then this is the guitar for you...

This is the 2000 model Hodad, made in Indonesia. She has 21 frets and the body is constructed of hardboard and plywood. Nicest sounding countertop I have ever played. :) Hollow body. There are two volumes and two tones (I wish that the volumes were slaved together like a Gibson or Guild but..... ah well.) The tone pots are also push pull tap switches. One is a coil tap and the other is a phase tap. Way cool. Awesome electronics on this guitar. Has more options than guitars three or four times its actual LIST price. The pickups are four Dano lipstick pickups wired as two humbuckers. Way cool Idea...... dunno how they did it, but they did. The neck is hard maple with a rosewood fretboard. The finish is a way cool red pearl that seems to be able to take a lot of abuse and still not scratch. One thing for Danelectro is they do a super nice finish. It has a Mosrite surf guitar body. Cool lookin. The bridge is a Danelectro Bigsby with a roller bridge. Really nice. I dig it. The tuners are non locking Gohtos. The neck reminds me of Fender crossed with Gibson.... Fast like a Fender and thick like a Gibson. She also has a set of Jumbo Frets on her.

Essentially this guitar sounds like no other guitar on earth. Very different. The Hollowbody gives it a ton of resonance and some nice vintage sustain. This is THE ultimate rockabilly surf guitar. I play a lot of those genres of music..... but I have also used it in a rock metal band as well. One must be wary of feedback due to the hollow body and pickup proximity........ but it is still very usable if you are smart. The humbuckers tend to be a tad muddy at times, but in brige position they are nice clear and hot. The coil tap is really cool and the phase tap is fantastic. The tones are clear and precise, almost bell like. Kinda vintage strat like. Very Cool. Essentially this guitar is a tone machine.... but it can shred, I have proven it..... currently I run it through a Crate GFX 212 or a Crate Blue Voodoo Head into a Behringer Halfstack. I run Digitech, Danelectro and DOD effects. If you are looking for a guitar that sounds like someone elses.... don't buy this one. If you want to sculpt a new tone that is individual to you, this is the choice. But try before you buy.

The factory set up on the guitar was great. She arrived with no flaws at all. The pickups and action were well adjusted and very playable. Everything was alligned right and the neck was straight and true..... immediately playable out of the box. Not really much else to say.

This guitar will definatley withstand live playing. Everyone is scared of the hollow body but..... the Danelectros of the 50's were treated much worse than I treat my gear... and they are still around. If you aren't stupid, you can make ANYTHING last a long time. I gig with her on tour and she has done nothing but suit me well.... except for one tiny little issue that I will now get to. The 3 way selector switch.... is in the most PISS POOR PLACE THEY COULD THINK OF!!! It is right underneath the freakin wammy bar..... so not even thinking about it (I am a divebom tremelo user when I have one) I repeatedly crushed the three way switch with the wammy bar until .... alas.... the switch died from the assult. I am currently having that switch replaced. Other than this STUPID little thing, everything else is okay.

Varies. Sometimes they are very timely with responses, other times there is no response at all.

I have been playing professionally for quite a while. I own a ton of other gear and guitars. This is however one of my favorites. It is unique and cool. Highly recomended. It'll also probably be a hell of a collectors item in years to come.

i have new clue when it was made the back of the headstock says made in korea.it has 22 frets. it has a masionite top. it has 2 vols & 2 tones w/ push & pull pots. one does a phase in & out. the other does a in & out coil tap. & it has a 3 way pick up selector switch.the pick up config is dualing H's. they are danelectro lipstick pickups (4 total) & every 2 are wired like humbuckers but are switchable to single coils. its like a strat & a SG in one guitar. i guess you can say the electronics are active. the body is masionite & the neck is typical rosewood. the finish is black w/ gold sparkle & pearl white sides.the hodad resembles a fucking kurt cobain hiflyer or more like kurts Gospels.=)it has a danelectro bigsby trem. it does the same thing i wanted a flyod to do but w/ less stringing & tuning hassle.the tuners are GOTOH. i fucking love these tuners. they're great i'm putting them on my future guitars that don't have them & also on my exsisting guitars. the neck is decently thin nice fast action typical rosewood. i got a fender padded gig bag.i give this a 9 cuz nothing is ever perfect or else it would reviece a 10 =)

it works for alot of styles. like i play grunge/punk/goth/thrash & strait heavy shit. & it stands up to it. my set up goes as follows. hodad>Dunlop org. crybaby>Ibanez chours/flange>Danelectro Fab Tone>a Crate half stack. you can get so many tones w/ this due to the coil tap switch & phaser switch.i feel bad a chose this guitar over a japanesse reissue of kurt cobain's Jagstang.=( but i will get a jagstang & beef it up.i just got it today & my best friend devirginized it of its drop D tunning capablities. & it works well w/ drop too. the only prob i have w/ it is you gotta watch how you have the 2nd vol knob set along w/ the first or you'll get insane hum. which isn't much of a prob.this thing is perfect for anyone that loves playn' a shit load of styles & doesn't wanna look labeled by their guitars looks.

i dunno about factory set up.i bought this used. & everything was setup very fucking well. the action was sweet i was able to haul ass on my solos.i see no flaws.everything seems to very well pieced together.well made.if it wasn't for danelectro making this their only humbucking trem guitar i would buy a shitload of dans. but for me i need a good trem & at least one humbucker. cuz i hate stop piece trems on string thru's.

i dunno how well this will stand up to a live show of mine. cuz i am like kurt cobain i like to get insane w/ my guitars.but i have a jackson & a fucked up korean stratocaster i'm redoing. & the jackson is broke down & the strat sounds like shit & this thing plays better than anyone of them in brand new condition. the hardware seems durable.the trem bar better hold up to me cuz i don't like to be nice to trem bars.this guitar i feel pretty comfortable w/ like i can just let lose on it w/ out worrying if i'm gonna snap anything like i did w/ the jackson & its flyod shit rose. the strap buttons are great they hold up.i think i can bash this fucker into a few amp cabs & throw it across a stage before i would get any major defects in the paintjob. by the way the paint job is beautiful.i would gig w/ a backup just for the simple facts change up guitars thru out the show & the other cuz you never what will happen always gig prepared & except the unexcepted. i have learned this well playn' gigs before.

dunno never deal w/ shit like that. i rather figure shit out for myself then to get some dweeb to tell me how to fix something.

i have been playn' for about 7 yrs no lessons. i have been thru many guitars. & i'm highly pleased w/ this. i am gettn' a few more guitars to add to my collection just for varity of play. mainly guitars outta the Fender & Squier lines. if was stolen or lost i would plan the murder of the fucker & make sure it is a slow & painful death.hehehe.i'm not lettn' anyone else touch this thing except for my best friend jim.my fav features on this is the trem & the coil tap & phase switchs.i always thought bigsbys were shit but i love them.

this guotar has endless features
probally the most if your going for a variety in tones......
great light weight......yet durable
seems to be built very well.......i love all the hardware
this guitar was made for me.......i love it!

matches me perfectly
savage sounds.........tinny sounds......rich clean.......full bodied........funky......it can do some amazing stuff
i like all the options in tone and how the pick ups are very raw yet can be set to be lush and gentle
great for dynamics in a song!

i had to tinker with action and the set up(who doesnt?)
after that though......no prblems at all.......it fells good to play this guitar.
its actually.......fun.
something that missing from a lot of guitars.

you would think that its a fragile guitar due to its weight but man this guitar has taken many a beaten
i have gone nuts on the bigsby......i have bashed the pick ups
droped it onstage......fell down on top of it on stage.....hit mike stands with it.........i even fell on the input(well the floor hit it anyways) and that waas the only thing that neede to be replaced.......good thing that the strap locks are meatl.....as well as the tuning heads.......i can always depend on this guitar.
ONE THING THOUGH!!......putting a string on this thing requires an alnighty amount of patience......but the sound is worth it

i own this with many pedals and a busted peavey amp and a marshall(a friends)
it is my number one guitar......danelectro make products that everyone enjoys
they are well built sound great and offer many options for sounds.
they are the only company still having fun with the instruments they sell and block their guitars with many awesome features.
as you can clearly see from the reviews on this giutar ......it is one of the best danelectro had made and in my opinion one of the best guitars made for buck around anywhere.
ive hd it for a while so im not trying to sound llike i have to like it so i dont fell ripped off......
i ve played loys and lots of guitars but this is the kind of guitar you remeber.......and i dont plan on ever taking this one out of my hands.......ill hopefully have it for life!

2000 model - blue pearl, though by that description I expected mother of toilet seat and instead I got this really cool gel coat sparkle navy blue finish that looks like it should be on a boat.

Four lipstick tubes, 2 tone, 2 volume controls, push pull tone controls for in/out phase sounds.

Satin maple neck with rosewood fretboard.

This guitar has more available tones than anything else in the market. I play country, blues and some acoustic fingerpicking music. I need my J-Station to simulate acoustic tone with other guitars. With the Hodad, out of phase on the neck pickup, through my Acoustasonic 30 amp, I get a reasonable acoustic tone and eliminate one guitar to carry. For rock or blues, I use a 1975 Vibro Champ. The jangly tones through that amp makes for a spectacular combo with this guitar.

This is not a Paul Reed Smith finish on #10 matched quilt maple, but for $149, it's the damn finest fit and finish you could ever imagine. Everything fits tight. There are no misaligned seams where the tape goes around the body. I would guess it's the finest bookmatched masonite money can buy... :)

The setup straight out of the box was actually very good. The neck and action on this guitar would make a lot of people overlook anything else that might be wrong.

The pickups have such flexibility that there is a learning curve when you want to switch them around at a gig. Basically, from full on, as you back off and pull the coil tap, you go from rich meaty tones to thinner jangly tones. There is some volume loss, but nothing that can't be made up for with the amp.

Hardware is chromed and reasonably heavy. The neck was straight. The fret dressing is unbelieveable for a guitar of this price. I have $1000 instruments that weren't as good as this.

I use a great variety of my guitars, so nothing gets played for hours a day every day. The Hodad seems rugged enough to use more than I do, but I'm really careful about the handling of my equipment. I would have to have some awful accident before I could tell stories about the ruggedness of a guitar. This guitar gets used primarily in recording situations, not on stage.

Before I got it, I read everyone's complaints about the strap buttons, so I took them out and replaced them with some strap locks. I filled the holes with a slurry of sawdust and epoxy, then redrilled the screw holes. I haven't had any problem.

In general, I'd gig with this guitar and could probably use it's available tones for more than I currently do.

Doesn't apply, I've never had to deal with them. On the other hand, like many others who mentioned it, I wish Danelectro had mods for their guitars other than just replacement pickups. My guess is that attaching something to their method of construction might wind up in people destroying the guitar more than modifying it. (Reverse Manufacture)

I've been playing nearly 40 years. I have 10 other guitars from Telecasters and Strats to a bunch of acoustics and travel guitars. The Hodad is a great value for money and if it broke or was stolen, I'd certainly want to replace it. I have a friend who has one with the Bigsby on it. That's the only thing I wish mine had.

As far as i know this is a 2000 model, red sparkle with offwhite trim. bolt on neck, masonite body and as far as i can tell some sort of wood block to support the bridge. 4 lipsticks wired like a les paul as 2 humbuckers, with a 3 way switch and 2 tones and 2 volume knobs. when you pull one tone knob out it does a coil tap, the other one does an in/out of phase. gotoh tuners (very nice and smooth), great feeling neck. included a neck tag and thats all.

if you play garage rock, surf, rockabilly, blues, or anything raunchy, this guitar has got it. the lipsticks wired like humbuckers offer a HUGE improvement over single lipsticks. the sound is so much better. on top of that the coil tap switch can give you that raw single sound if you want, and the out of phase switch makes it the fullest, most beautiful sound ive heard from a dano. i am quite pleased with the tone. as far as noise, no noise. the body feels hollowish, so when you knock on it, it can be noisy. it gets some odd harmonics if you pick the G string and dont mute, but thats a pretty standard thing to happen. if it isnt hard enough of a sound you can tack a compressor on before you put it in the amp and it opens the sound up even more.

my setup is: hodad - roadkill distortion - rp200 - crate GX212. i usually use a blackface amp model and light compressor on the rp200 and a light distortion on the amp and pedal. it gets a really great tone.

because of the way the stock bridges are, its really very dificult to get the intonation correct. but it is very close to being perfect, and the fine tuners dont move around. if i was using this guitar for 12th fret+ solos, i might install another bridge with better fine tuners. but for what i do, its just fine. everything is aligned, its all nice. The only thing i absolutely hated were those plastic knobs! ugh. i replaced the tone and volume knobs right away with the knurled chrome dome knobs. the guitar looks 20% better just doing that (i would suggest it to anyone that owns one, just do it and see).

its been dropped. its been hauled around. its sat in the steaming garage for a few days and still worked. the finish looks like it will never scratch, and hasnt so far even after some mild abuse. the strap buttons got their foam pads and their big and strong. its a light guitar (well lighter than a tankly guitar like a strat) but its definitely built to last. If i gigged, i would probably take this one without a backup.

i emailed danelectro a question about the settings for the coil tap and the selector switch and they emailed be back with the wrong information, information for another guitar model. you're prety much unable to obtain stock replacement parts from them, except for lipsticks. this makes me a bit mad. for all of this they get fairly low customer support.

ive been playing almost a year. I played a regular danelectro u2 right before i played this one and the difference is HUGE and very well worth the extra 40 bucks. if it got stolen, i might get something else just because i like variety, but the tone is unmatched by any other guitar anywhere. i LOVE the tone, and the style. tell anyone that says "danelectros are toys" to put their ibanez or jackson or whatever up their ass.

Same as the others, look at the danelectro website for specs. made in korea, not sure what year.

I play punk, I loved this guitar at first(mostly because it looks like the one johnny Ramone played) but now I realize it doesn't really fit my style for everything. I use it straight into a jcm 900 with one marshall 4x12 cab. The clean sound with this setup is excellent of course thats what it was made for. It is also good for light overdrive situations. play aound with all the knobs, they make a HUGE difference in sound. I love having the single coil humbucher switch. When i play it with full gain from the marshall the sound is not that clear even at the bridge when i compare it with my B.C. Rich(I know a punker playing a B C Rich). The pickups aren't that hot either even at humbucker bridge. it feeds back bad at full gain too, but its hollow so it has to, if you use the bridge pickup it helps. the tuners are good, the trem goes out of tune fast(oh well it looks cool as hell) the neck has an excellent fatter shape, but not too fat-good feel. This is an excellent guitar if you are playing clean, if you play ska or reggae it is also very good. This is a good guitar for anyone who wants a different sound, for $150 with a gig bag anyone could afford it and its WAAAAAY better than squire and crap like that. I gave this a 9 because it does what it is supposed to very well.

I had to adjust the intonation, but it came straight from the factory. The frets were dressed really well.

giged with it twice with no back-up...no problems. back got really scratched from belt buckles but that happens. strong guitar eventhough its light, I can jump around easier.

no problems yet, I heard they were good people.

I've had it for a few months, I really like it. if someone stole it I'd kick their ass and take it back-or buy a new one if it were this cheap. I wish it had the sweet-ass sparkle finish, but that was $400-oh well. I'm not going to say I wish it didn't feed back or had hotter pickups because then it wouldn't have such a good clean sound, and I would just buy another solidbody, but I didn't want one. probably the best guitar you could get for $150 new. I am very happy with it.

Made in Korea, 2000. 21 frets. Body style similar to Moserite. Plywood construction. 4 "lipstick"-style pickups wired like 2 humbuckers. 2 volume, 2 tone controls with coil tap and in/out phase. Bolted neck, satin maple finish/rosewood fingerboard. Bigsby-style (but not Bigsby-made) tremolo bridge. Gotoh non-locking tuners.

Good variety of tones, from jazz-bluesy bass to nasal, not bright treble. OK sustain. Some buzzing on mine that disappears with coil tap; probably needs a better ground. Pickups are pretty sensitive; feed back easily with gain. Like it looks, a suitable guitar for most '60s garage and alt-rock styles.

Action was set comfortably low, slight string buzz on low E remedied by changing very light factory strings. Tremolo arm and cable socket needed some tightening; mismatched strap buttons that I would have replaced regardless. No obvious finish flaws. Switches pretty quiet. (Warning: Non-tremolo standard Dano bridge is crude, barely adjustable; expect to replace.)

It's a very light, plywood-constructed guitar. It's not going to stand up well to a lot of beating. That said, reasonably conscientious players shouldn't have a problem. I worry about the jakey-looking tremolo holding up to a lot of yanking, but so far it's solid. Strap buttons should be replaced with locking type for gigging.

Customer support was timely and helpful. I asked via e-mail what size wrench I needed to tighten the tremolo arm; within 24 hours they had responded with the right answer. 1-year warranty.

I've been playing for 20 years, mostly Gibsons. Cheap thrills sold me on the Hodad. If I had to pay full list for it, forget it. There are a lot of under $500 guitars that are better made than this. But it's a fun, easy instrument to play, with a lot of features and a great look.

it has a nice retro surf thing going on but sounds good with any style of music.Verry light compared to its size,sparkle blue finish,bigsby style trem,2 vol,2 tone with push/pull coil tap and phase.4 lipsticks wired like 2 humbuckers,Gotoh tuners,verry likeable.This guitar has tons of tonal varieties.nice thin neck.Mosrite rip-off body,like the ramones and the ventures had.but The body is a little bit too big for my liking.

I had always loved the danelectro look and that retro charm, thats why i bought this guitar.But when i got it home and started to play it some, i realized i had bought a vintage guitar for a metal band(my band is a hard core/metal band, were called overdosed spirit).Although the looks dont seem to work well with that kind of music, the sound was exactly the kind of origional sound i was looking for(im probably the first metal head to use a dano).It feeds back a lot though,so i use a noise reducer and it works o.k.

Perfect action.I could sit and look deep into the infinite sparkles of its finsh all day.I have too, i found one speck that is red,as opposed to the thousands of blue ones around it.I like the finish on the neck, its smooth and silky but doesnt get sticky when i sweat on it(like those glass-smooth finishes).

I use it only when my main guitar(a beat up,home made,strat)is under construction or is "sick".But i love standing on stage being the sparkley one.it has a glam rock appearance and a big body that is well balanced.It is pretty feeble though, im really protective of it because it doesnt seem to be able to withstand a small beating.The strap buttons dont bug me because i replaced them with locking buttons,nothing is too good for my baby.

I havent had to deal with them yet, but ive heard good things.

I love it. the tone, feel,and looks all have a retro charm.I just wish the body was a little bit smaller.but for the price, go for it!this guitar sounds like a much more expensive guitar(i actually like the sound better than my 1969 Gibson les paul).After 5 years of playing and 7 guitars i have found what will probably be one of my main guitars for a long time.

Made in 2000 in Korea. It features a maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard and 21 frets. Dual lipstick humbuckers that seem to be VERY sensitive. The finish was red pearl. The body style is a bit like a shifted stratocaster, only larger. For not being too contured on the side it's very comfortable to play. Also has a knock-off Bigsby tremelo, but even with an actuall Bigsby it wouldn't make a difference. Non-locking Gotoh tuners. Has a three-way pickup selector. Bolt-on neck. Also came with the Amp in Bag, a cheesy yet really protective bag for not being a hardshell. One complaint about the Hodad is that when you break the string, you cant unwind the tuner and reconnect the string. You will want to have an extra pack of strings with you just in case if you break one.

My playing style is basically hard rock, metal, and sometimes acoustic
and it sounded great in almost everything except metal, but then, it IS NOT a metal guitar. You can play it on the Hodad, you shouldn't though. Great sound when it's clean, it almost sounds acoustic. The humbuckers have a bit of a buzz to it in distortion, not too much to complain about though. With both of the humbuckers on it gets very loud.

When this arrived it was almost completely in tune. The guitar was setup very well, but after a day or so I had to tighten the input jack on it.

I've had this for a little over a month and it's held up nicely. I've never played live but when I do I would easily play it, possibly without a backup. The strap buttons (finally)are metal and the strap hasn't fallen of yet with it on.

Never dealt with them

I've been playing for about a year now and I have a Samick that I use for lead guitar due to its Floyd Rose and 24 frets, but the Hodad is a lot better than the Samick (i'm trading it in soon, bad intonation). If it were stolen, I would freak out and beat the person who took it death. It is a lot like a Les Paul, Tele, or a Strat, but despite that it does has a tone of its own.

Standard Danelectro construction,long scale neck,Gotoh Tuners that actually work,adjustable bridge,3 lipstick pups,6 pos.rotary switch,blow switch that allows all pups together in series.I got the pearl white,a beautifully finished instrument with a very well applied imitation brown leather tape.MUCH better made than my 59 U2 guitar.Decent strapholders (metal and oversized).I also boughtb the cool Dano tweed gigbag.

I am not a bass player,I play guitar,but this bass is FANTASTIC.I produce many bands and in the studio it can hold it's ground against basses that cost 10 times more.All pos are useable my favorites beeing all pups together or neck only.This bass oozes with personality.

Plays great with nice low action,dead straight neck with no buzzes,very good quality build+finish.

It is hollow but it is built tough (just don't step on it).

This is an exalent professional bass that I strongly recomend to anyone.Great sound,looks and loads of personality.My bass player who is a Musicman fanatic,flipped over this bass and went out and bought one the same day he played mine!

I think it's a 2000 model. It has the Bigsby-style tremolo. I assume it's the usual Danelectro masonite/plywood construction. The binding is vinyl tape. Four lipstick pickups arranged in two sets of two for hum-canceling purposes. Two volume and two tone controls. Two of the controls can be pulled up for coil tap or to put the pickups out of phase. There are said to be 11 possible combnations of pickup selector switch/buttons. Rosewood fretboard. Unlike previous Danelectros, this has an adjustable bridge, much better tuners, and metal strap buttons.

It's a Danelectro. It has the classic Danelectro sound - lots of twang, not much sustain. If you're looking to play Stevie Ray Vaughan or metal, this is not the best choice. If you're playing surf, or rockabilly, or just looking for a very different sound from Fender or Gibson/Marshall, this may be just the ticket. I had had a Danelectro U2 earlier, and sold it because I didn't like the bridge or the tuners, and REALLY didn't like the strap buttons. The Hodad is much better in all of these respects, and retains the traditional Danelectro sound while adding lots of other colors with the four pickups and the pull switches.

I would have expected problems in this area, but I've owned two Danelectros and they've both been impeccable in this area. Surprisingly good workmanship. The violet pearl finish is much nicer than I expected. I though that this would be a really ugly guitar, and that wasn't the case ar all.

Danelectros look flimsy, but I've never had any problems with them in terms of reliability. It certainly isn't a tank teh way a Fender is, but I take good care of my guitars, and I don't anticipate any problems. The improved strap buttons are a BIG plus here.

Good repsonse to emails, good Web site.

Ridiculously good deal. Musician's Friend threw in a gig bag with a built-in amp. When I sold my U2, I intended to buy a Hodad at some point. When I saw this price, I couldn't resist. My other guitars are a Parker P-38, Route 101 Solimar Custom, Fender Strat Plus Deluxe, DeArmond Jet Star, MIM Fender Strat, Lace prototype and a Fernandes Nomad. This sounds nothing like any of the others. I don't know that this would be my choice as my only or first guitar, but it's a fabulous value and a great second or third guitar.

This is a striking looking guitar (most often compared to the Mosrite body style, but reminds me fondly of my first old Univox; a mosrite copy). Although not a "re-issue", it's got all the usual Dano features (specs indicate a "hard-wood" top, on a pine frame --better than "card-board", of course), with the ultimately cool looking lipstick pickups, this time wired into humbuckers, with spliting and out-of-phase available by pulling the tone knobs. The "Bigsby-style" tremolo works really well, although at the price I worry that the bar will snap off (what's it made of?) under heavy use. I liked the easy adjustability of the roller bridge, and the tuners seem solid.

This is a great sounding guitar, and I think the pickups are a big part of that. It doesn't sound like my other usual guitars (mostly an American Standard tele, with a Duncan "little '59" in the bridge). I had a little difficulty recording quieter parts because it picked up a lot of transient noise (clothing rubbing, strap squeaking...pretty sensitive pickups, I guess, and the resonance of the hollow body). A little bit of hum was also easily dialed out with the push-pull pots.

The one flaw is a ding in a fret that snags a string when I bend, and I haven't decided how I'm going to remedy that yet. I don't know if that's why the guitar was discounted as much as is was (Guitar Center, Sacramento, CA, $237). It played great from the store, and I switched to my usual "lighter top, heavy bottom" string gauge without needing to mess with the neck or action at all. This is the first "sparkly" guitar (black/gold pearl, looks great) I've ever owned, and that's a thrill, of course.

The top is sustaining some scratching already, and as I mentioned, I'm a little queasy about how well the vibro arm will handle a lot of bending around. But, hell, the old danelectros made out of old formica countertop material are still around and doing well. I wouldn't gig EVER without a backup, and certainly not with this guitar...Especially since changing the strings on this tremolo bridge is a major ordeal; hard enough at home, and not what I'd want to attempt under any pressure/between songs.

Don't know. The web site has good specs & info available.

Everyone who plays this guitar flips for it. A friend who'd recently paid twice as much for a very nice 70's reissue strat got a little depressed after enjoying this guitar so much. I looked at all the Danelectros for more than a year, and first played this one about 10 months before I bought one (I don't spend a ton on gear), but craved it the whole time. My favorite feature on any guitar is the whammy bar, and what I appreciate on this is that it's free floating (you can pull up or dive down), and that anything I can do on my old Fender Mustang (the best whammy around, for me) this one can replicate. It also feeds back pretty well, which my more sophisticatedly-wired tele will not (grrrr...). This guitar looks great to me, and that's a lot of the fun. The rest of the fun is that it's a really nice sounding and playing guitar as well. I can't believe you can buy such a good guitar at this price (times are changing).

A great bolt on "u" shaped maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, graphite nut, and stop tail bridge. REAL METAL STRAP HOLDERS (compared to other Dannos which have plastic ones) About two pounds lighter than a Strat, with a slightly larger body. Lip Stick Humbucker pickups (they handle distortion and wah better than any other pickups), the body looks and feals like a Vintage Morsite like the ventures used. Four knobs (2 of which are push pull knobs.), Tapping and phasing the pickups into either two humbuckers or four single coils.Also comes with Gotoh tuners.

This guitar is as quiet as a PRS, with the tone of a strat. I am running it through a 600 watt Peavey Renown 400 Solo Series w/ two 12" Scorpion speakers,a Danelectro Fab Tone Distortion, a DOD Envelope Filter, and Peavey Reverb pedals. This guitar will suit any playing styles such as Ska,Metal,Blues,Hard Core, Contemperary, 70's rock, Pop,Techno, or any other music your little heart desires. I play in the Christian Rock band Learning To Walk. We play Praise and Worship to Rock and this baby suits my needs in all feilds of play. I own a Gibson J200 w/ a ParaTECH pickup, a 1997 Fender Strat, a 1975 Les Paul copy, an Arbor acoustic, a Hofner coby Beatle bass, a Fender P-bass Special, and my new Danno. This guitar handles effects more quietly and with a fuller sound than any of my other guitars.

Comes great from the factory. The pickups are set at the perfect level, and it is Metalic Blue Sparkle (when they sparkle they mean it)
What mmmore could you ask for in a moderately priced guitar

I will probobally replace the bridge within a year or so because it kind of looks cheap, This guitar is made out of a cheap wood, but it feels like it will do just fine, and I will gig with out a back up.

Haven't had to deal with yet, and I hope never to deal with them!

I have been playing guitar for 4 years now, and this guitar aside from my Gibson J200 is the best one I own. The sound is incredible. It sounds almost like Les Paul meets Telecaster with a Strats tone. I wish it had a little bit better bridge on it, it does the job well, it just looks cheap. If it were stolen I'd certainly buy a new one (unless I could afford a PRS. ha ha ha like that will ever happen)Plus if you don't like how it sounds, you could always use it as a radio, because mine picks up a local station and plays it loud and clear when the distortion is on HA HA HA. Luke 1:37,John 3:16 Jesus Loves you!!! <><

The Hoodad I believe is made in Korea, probably in the same factory as epiphone is my guess if you want specifics! It has 21 frets, has gotoh tuners, a bigsby like tremolo, a semi hollow body I think (IF it had F holes like on a real hollow body it would look damn cool on the blue sparkle, Danelectro should do that next!) two humbuckers that have a coil tap on them, and a phase switch, I really don't understand what that phase thing does because it only makes a little bit of a different sound. I believe it has a maple neck. I'm at school doing this so I can't tell you really. I"m betting maple.

You can't really get a huge paul sound out of it....but it sounds great with a fab tone. My playing is from blues to rockabilly to punk. and I can do all of those types of music with this guitar.

Sparklky blue Nuff said!

I'm afraid I'd break it easily I'm a rough player you should see my strat and sg..I've beaten the hell out of them!

never dealt with em!

I have quite a danelectro collection now I guess I also own a hoodad bass which I love, and I also own a fab tone which is a scary pedal. I'm in the works for a daddy o overdrive so.....I love the dano stuff. I love the looks of it I love the sound, It just looks unique and you can get so many different sounds out of it...a good bang for you buck

Model 2000, purchased off Ebay for $217.00 Bright Blue Metalflake with Bigsby tremelo. Used but in absolutely perfect condition throughout. Solid body, light weight, well balanced. 2 sets of Dano lipstick pickups with coil tap and phase push-pull on the control knobs. Good tuners, straight neck, polished frets, stable tremelo. Roller bridge, wide flat comfortable neck.

Unique sounds, nothing like a stratocaster (I have a 73). Sounds much more resonant (due to the hollow body style). Lots of tone settings when selecting pickup combinations, I never use the tone controls. Medium gain pickups, nothing like humbuckers. This guitar actually sounds almost exactly like an Old Silvertone 2-pickup guitar I used to have many moons ago but looks much nicer and plays better as well.

Action/intonation needed to be set up by guitar technician. I'm currently using this guitar for slide work so I had medium gauge strings put on and the bridge adjusted. Works just fine now, all the way up the neck. Originally, only the G string was not intonated properly (being a little flat). The fit and finish of this guitar is first-rate.

As long as it's not dropped out a window or smashed up, should last for many years.

None that I've needed.

I give this guitar a 99 out of 100. I just love it although it won't replace my Stratocaster, now or ever. But as a 2nd guitar it's the best. It looks good, sounds good, both recording direct and live, is comfortable to play, has lots of tone variations, and is a smashing value overall. I also have the Hodad 12 string which I love equally as much. Buy one of these puppies...

2000 New Hodad, 4 lipstick, blue metalflake, with tremolo. Cheap plywood body but surprisingly good sound. Great hardware. Maple neck.

I play everything but go through a Zoom GFX 707. Sounds perfect with or without. Great sounds! Rich sound, bright and even. Good in or out of phase.

Great finish no flaws. Perfect layout good action.

Great quality. I would use it anywhere.

No comment, and probably will never need it.

What can I say? It is perfect and matches my style. I will keep this for life. Anybody steals this and I will hound them for eternity.

Pearl red 1999 Korean made Danelectro. Has 21 frets on 25' scale neck. There is a separate volume knob for each set of lipstick (humbucking) pickups. There are two push/pull tone knobs that act as coil tap and phase controls. My guitar has a Bigsby style tremelo, gotoh tuners, and real metal strap buttons (halleluah!), Maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, and shiny heavy fretwire. Oh and a three way pickup selector. The masonite and plywood body is bound with vinyl contact paper.

My playing style ranges from industrial metal to new wave and blues to ethereal goth.This guitar falls short in the metal department. However, it fits in fine with just about everything else. The middle nontapped mode sounds real close to a telecaster. The neck position tapped sounds just like my Jaguar neck pickup which is excellent for ska and surf. The neck pickup is great for getting bluesy classic rock tones.
I gig and record with a Line 6 Ax2. This amp is quite versatile enough to dive into whatever music style you are into. As far as clean tones, this guitar is crystal. Using my heaviest distortion setting, I achieved the "smells like teen spirit" guitar sound. There is not much sustain. While practicing I plugged into my 30 watt Gorilla bass amp and got the most beautiful classical guitar and acoustic archtop sounds.

I suppose that some tweeking could fix the wimpy distortion but I will mess with it later. For now I am satisfied with the incredible clean tones.

This guitar was a pawnshop find and was setup to perfection. There was no string buzz anywhere. The pickups don't appear to be adjustable. It does appear to have been dropped by the previous owner. There is a gouge in the vinyl binding and the jackplate was smashed in.

I had checked out the Dano U2 and 59 DC and was turned of by the cheap tuners, cheap plastic strap buttons, and peeling body binding. This guitar is deluxe and quality with upgraded quality hardware. It had to have been dropped pretty hard to smash in the jackplate like that. So it must be one tough little bugger to have sustained no other damage. One of my biggest fear about owning a Dano was that is woul shatter into little pieces if dropped.
I always gig with a backup. I break string often. This guitar sounds close enough to my Jaguar that they could easily interchange.

never dealt with them

I have been playing guitar for 3 year and bass for 14. I have a 62 Reissue Jaguar, Schecter A7, Washburn 5 string bass, and my baby (custom handmade guitar with a mosrite style body from a local luthier).
I came across this guitar while looking to trade my Squier SuperSonic in for a practice guitar that was acually useful. I was attracted by it's cool looks, hooked by it's comfort, and sold on getting an even trade for a guitar that I really wanted to get rid of.
If something happened to this guitar I would be on Ebay in a heartbeat looking for another. New these guitars can be found for 250, for the versatility you can't beat the value.

'99 Black w/ Gold Sparkle Hodad, 21 jumbo fret neck, volume, 2 tone knobs (1 w/ phase and 1 w/ coil tap), 3 way pickup selector switch (which is really kinda in the way...), 2 dano lipstick humbuckers, bridge w/ bigsby style tremolo system, awesome gotoh tuners...
I love the tuners and really prefer bigsby to floyd rose tremolos, it rarely ever detunes strings, even when they are right out of the package and unstretched...

great for surf/ska/punk, and i've even got some metal sounds out of it with the right pedals. usually use a peavey pro studio 112 amp, with either a nobels fuzz pedal or a morley rock n' verb (overdrive/reverb pedal, sounds damn sweet and really unique, highly recommended if you can find one). i've never gotten a bad noise out of this guitar, sounds clean on every setting. the bridge pickup (lower setting on the 3 way switch) has a really thin ska sound to it, the neck pickup (lower setting) has a bassy sound, the middle position has an extremely rich sound... great for everything i've ever wanted to play...

action, pickups, bridge, necj, tuners, etc were all perfect straight from factory. didn't have to mess with it at all...

this guitar withstands a helluva lot, only 1 minor dent because i was dumb and accidentally dropped it... strap buttons and knobs and such are a-ok and could hold up to just about anything...

never had to deal with them...

been playing 3 years, i also have a peavey horizon II than doesnt even come close to the hodaddy... i think i would seriously cry if it was ever stolen, the whole guitar is perfect for me, wouldn't think of changing a thing about it...

Same specs as already listed. My finish was red, although it still looks ok.

I play different variations of rock music and the Hodad is a much better guitar than my previous one (sorry Squier). I'm a bit of a vintage reissue fanatic. I run the guitar through a Crybaby, Big Muff, Danelectro Fab Tone, and sometimes a Pandora's box into my Crate. I use the Crate's clean channel and add distortion through my effects. This guitar can sound great. The Out of Phase effect is nice when you strum and then turn the knob back and forth. It sounds like a mild chorus. The coil taps don't quite sound like a Fender, but I bought a Danelectro so that's kind of the point. Separate volume knobs for each pickup can be used if you want to use the pickup selector as a kill switch, if you were doing any Rage Against the Machine cover songs. The guitar is very light but it can sound huge. A great tonal diversity from one instrument.

The only complaints I have is that my low E string buzzes when I'm unplugged. I don't know exactly how to fix it, but if anyone has any ideas I'm all ears. I changed the strings when I bought it. The action can be adjusted using a screwdriver. It's all very straighforward.

I've had it a little while and it seems to be doing fine. The strap buttons look a little sketchy but I bet they'll hold up. I would definitely gig with it. All guitars players should gig with a backup just in case, but the Hodad seems sturdy enough.

N/A

I've been playing guitar for about three years so I still have a lot to learn. It's a great guitar for the money. I would cry for a long time if it was stolen, and then I'd go to work and try to earn up enough money to buy another one. If you have a sound in your head it can probably be translated through this guitar with a little tweaking. I wish I could have found one with a sparkle finish, but I'm happy with what I got. It's a great guitar.

New, probably built in '99. Blowout sale at Guitar Center in Salt Lake ($199 plus tax) plus a $10 cheap-o gig bag. Set up was fine as is. Intonated fine, played true up & down the neck. Just a really cool cheap-o axe. Stays in tune fine (my doesn't have the "bigsby" on it). Gotoh tuners. Black/Gold pearl finish, rosewood board, I think it's a 25-1/2" scale. Made of plywood glued over a center block (I think). Body style reminds me of a Mosrite, which is too cool.

Surprisingly good. The humbucker-wired dual lipsticks are able to be phase- and coil-tapped. When played in 'bucker mode, it sounds nasty but just a 'little' mushy. Hey, I've played Gibson Les Pauls that had muddy sounding buckers, so that's no crime. I play rock (Led Zep, Stones, Everclear, etc). Is a little noisy, and I did notice some sort of 'clucking' sound as I would touch the body sometimes, not sure what's up with that.

Again, surprisingly good. Frets appeared fine, it was set up okay, hard to believe you can buy a brand new guit for $200-$300 and it plays this well right off the rack.

Hard to know, I guess we'll start hearing about Dano reliability in the coming years. I think it'll hold up fine, tho it's light as a feather.

No idea.

My high rating is taking into account the price, which it should. What a great 2nd or 3rd guitar for an experienced guitarist, and a great 1st guitar for anyone else. These Dano's are too cool, go out and buy 3 or 4.

2000 model from Dano. This big-daddy is something I've never even thought of before. Two sets of lipstick-tube's wired like humbuckers. Coil-tap feature AND phase-tap. Bigsby-style tremolo system is excellent, no tuning problems whatsoever. 21 frets on a maple neck w/rosewood fingerboard make playability great, action is good. Adjustable bridge piece allows for the strings to be "rolled" into your preferred position. It was a mother for me to string up see as how this is my first guitar like it.

My music style is blues, jazz, rock, funk, and basically all of the above SAVE that punk/ska/thrash crap. I use a Pres. Elec. Dual-Tone and a Boss BD-2, sounds great, the coil tap allows for rhythm/solo mode of its own. The pickups are not noisy at all. (humbucker unless tapped.) It gives a very fat sound regardless of tapped or un-tapped, it's a lip-stick tube for gosh sakes! I've found a Les-Paul tone, fat strat, and even a tele bridge tone with both pickup's tapped and out-of-phase...LOCO.

blue........sparkle........vinyl on the side. CHEESE. But..good cheese! I liked everything, action could use a touch of work, but JUST a touch.

This guitar is LITE, but after playing it through a few sets of strings, I'm convinced that it's as sturdy as any other. Very solid hardware all around. I'd use a backup only cause I'm prone to breaking strings.

No need yet.

I'm experienced enough to know a good guitar when I see it. It's cheesy, but a little bad-ass. I'm 18 years old, but have watched and helped my father build/customize guitars for years now. I know what quality is. This guitar passes very nicely.

2000 issue from Danny with 3 lipstick pickups and a selector switch and rotary dial for pickup tone selection. Body is made of? Well maybe masonite or something of the &quot;Near Wood&quot; family. Maple neck with rosewood fingerboard. This guitar is different from the previous issue of the old Les Paul body. This is a Mosrite style and is meticulously finished. The frets are very well finished and this model has a roller bridge and is fully adjustable for intonation. The tuners are very heavy in construction but I am unsure of who made them. Although made in Korea, this guitar is very well made and is very light. The finish is black metal flake appearing and would put a 57 Chevy to shame.COmes without a case, but the guy at Todds Guitars, Etc (888)GTRS-ETC in Longmont Colorado was great about making me an offer I couldn't refuse. The Guitar was $299 and he was having a $50 off sale so it was $249 - unbeatable. Soft shell case for $24 - good case not a cheapo one.

New venture for me as I usually play a Les Paul or a Strat. I played this guitar through a Fender VIbro King and it kicked butt. I normally play through a Peavey Renoun or a 53 Bandmaster w/3-10's. This guitar has such cool sound that I couldn't put it down. I played this guitar for about an hour straight at the store. Sounds are very variable and with the switches and the rotary dial, you are in 7th heaven. This guitar rocks!

Well put together although I had to adjust the neck as it had a positive bow in the neck - but that requires removing the neck to adjust the truss rod. No big deal. Just like a Fender.

This is the ultimate RETRO with a sound that knocks off your socks.
Having grown up in the 50's and 60's these guitars by Danelectro are no comparison as far as features. These new ones are put together well and for the money, kicks Fender Squires butt. Everyone should have a Danny.

As with any guitar, you have to be careful. The longer neck makes it less stable when standing beside your amp and the body body contour makes it roll when standing. Put it on and you're in another world.

And so what if you ding it up - at least it doesn't cost $700 plus. THis guitar is made to be used, not put on a shelf or up on display.

1 year warranty. You should be able to do all the maintainence by yourself. This is a no brainer and a great guitar to learn basic guitar care and maintenence on.

I've been looking for another new thing to try and these Danelectros are outstanding. (I'm also going to buy the Hodad 12 as it has a wonderful wide neck and great sounds. For those of you who have contemplated a Ricky - take my word, the neck is very narrow and difficult to play for us fat fingered people.) Therre are reissue guitars every where, but these ones are great and even improved to make them tons better than the 60's ones.

I picked up this puppy about three weeks ago, and so far the only complaint I have, is that I can't get it out of my mind. It has the distinctive Bigsby trem, lipstick pick-ups, and a beautiful sparkling blue finish. If a guitar could survive on looks, this one would definatelt have a long life. There's also a couple of knobs that pull out on the guitar. One gives you a "twangy" kinda feel, the other a little psychadelic. I don't see myself using them that much.

Sound quality is sweet. My other guitar is a Fender Strat. I think in the longrun I like the strat better for chords and stuff, but the Hodad screams on the leads. Of course with a humbucker sound you'll have that. Also, many are calling this (including Danelectro) a "surf" guitar. I find it to be great in other areas. I'm a Rock fan with influences in blues and punk.

Again, this guitar looks sweet. I'm the envy of all my friends.

No problems yet. It looks better than a loy of other Danelectro guitars. Some of their stuff tends to be a little "plastic" looking. This looks like a nicely made guitar.

no problems yet.

I gotta say, I like this guitar. The only concern I have is whether it will stay in tune. I play hard live. When I strike a chord, sometimes I do it with a lot of force. I've noticed a little note slipping. I bought it as a back-up guitar. I was going to get one of those Mexican Telecasters. You know cheap, but reliable. Then this caught my eye. I haven't played out with it yet, but I'm not worried. I'm sure when I do, my Fender Hot Rod Delux will keep everything in line. Who knows, I may even play eenie meanie to decide who bats first my Strat or my Hodad. In the 15 years I've been playing, I've owned about a dozen guitars. I couldn't even tell you what half of them were. I won't forget this guitar, and if for some reason it should fall into the wrong hands, I'd buy another.

This is a brand new, 1999 model with the Bigsby tremelo, made in Korea if I'm not mistaken. I bought it about a month ago. It has all the same specs as listed below. The hodad has 4 lipstick pickups, like all the danelectros. These, however, are wired like two humbuckers, giving it a lot more power and sound than a U-2, U-3, or DC-3. A 3 way pickup selector switch. Two volume controls, and two tone controls for each pickup set. The tone knobs have the pull out features (see Sound). My only complaint is that it gets a little crowded down there with all the switches and the bigsby bar. It would have been nice to have the pickup selector mounted on the upper bout, but its easily overlooked.
The finish is a black/gold metal flake, with cream colored vinyl binding. Let me tell you this, its beautiful. In some lights it has this shiny irridescent black look, others it looks sparkly green, and some lights make it look like a subtly psychadelic copper.
I got the tremelo model. The unit is basically an exact bigsby reprodcution. Solid chrome too. It looks stunning, and sounds great. This was my main reason for buying. Most guitars with a Bigsby are about $800 and up brand new. To find it on a guitar of this price is almost unheard of. Not to mention that the damn thing works like a charm. I pound on it and never once did I hear the body crack.
Oh yeah, if you heard of Danelectro's cheesy plastic strap buttons, don't worry. The Hodad has solid metal, screwed in buttons, with the top one mounted on the tip of the upper bout.

I predominatly play Rockabilly (50's, Stray Cats, Brian Setzer, etc.). This guitar absolutely definitely suits me for this. The semi hollow body sound is wonderful for this style. Don't get me wrong, if I could afford a Gretsch 6120, I'd buy one. But since I'm a struggling college student, this is a nice alternative. All my equipment is Danelectro (wish they had an IPO). I play through a Dan-Echo delay pedal, Cool-cat Chorus, and into either a Danelectro Nifty Fifty Amp or Danelectro Honeytone (LOVE that little amp). Sounds beautiful through everything. No noise or buzzing, especially when I switch pickups.
As you've probably heard, the hodad has pull up tone nobs for some distinct tone variations. The rhythm pickup knob is a "Pull for Tap", and the bridge pickup knob is a "Pull for Pause". Now don't ask me exactly what this means but I do know that this makes the Hodad increadibly versatile. Pulling on the pause gives you a jangly sorta hot rod kinda sound, especially when you kick in just the bridge pick up (try playing the James Bond or Peter Gunne themes and you'll know what I mean). Or if you like a more clean sound, tap the pickups. Danelectro claims you can get about 12 different tone variations. I'm not sure about that, but definitely at least 6-9 distinct tones. Bottom line is I can go from playing Rock this Town, to Sleepwalk, to Stray Cat Strut without hassle, and with total ease with the tone controls.

Factory set up was great, although I replaced the strings with D'Adario 10's, mainly because I just overall prefer them. You may stick with the ones already on. The action and fit was fine. I saw no noticable flaws in anything. Like I said, the finish in increadible. The bigsby was in perfect working order, and still is after being subjected to my pounding.

I've done informal gigs with it, and it impressed everyone. Just make sure your strings are set in for a while, because the bigsby tends to stretch out new strings just a bit to make the pitch slightly flat. But after a couple of hours of playing its fine. Everything seems like it lasts, plus Danelectro has a one year warrenty on it. Strap buttons are great, and finish has withstood some serious scratches from my ring. I even accidently knocked it over its stand onto a hard floor (the sound of chrome hitting floor is not good), and it came out fine...not a dent on it. However, this is a danelectro, and I wouldn't recommend getting excessivly rough with it. Hey, that price comes from somewhere.

never dealt with them on the phone, although they've always replied to my emails, and my guitar shop always had an easy time contacting their techs. The seem to have pretty good customer service, haven't heard any complaints (listen up Fred Gretsch!).

Let me tell you, I think this guitar rocks. I know it may seem like I'm a Danelectro employee, but let me assure you I'm just an enthusiastic guitarist who knows what he likes. The guys at the guitar shop knew I was interested in this guitar and as soon as it came in, they handed it right to me to try out. Speaking of which, if you are ever in Ithaca, NY, check out Ithaca Guitar Works. Best damn customer service I've ever had in a guitar shop. Those cats don't have the requirement of having to play guitar for 50 years in order to be treated right. They know what customer service is.
In anycase, for anyone who is on a slight budget, but still wants to play a guitar with a bigsby (or likes the look of one), you found your match. And even if you have copious amounts of money, take a look at this axe and try it out in the shop. You can't really understand how increadibly awesome the tone variations are until you experience them. This is by far Danelectro's best guitar to date. I own a ton of equipment from them its pretty damn reliable.